'Hart of Dixie' Recap: "I Walk the Line"

After a one week hiatus for Election Day, “Hart of Dixie” was back this week with an election of its own. It was time to decide on who the next mayor of Bluebell was going to be and the episode, “I Walk the Line,” was easily the best of the season since the hostage crisis in the premiere.

One of this show’s biggest strengths is that every single actor on the show and all the guest stars have fantastic comedic timing. The CW really needs to start marketing this show and its Tuesday night counterpart “Emily Owens, M.D.” as comedies with a side of a drama. But we’ll save that argument for a different day and get back to the episode.

Lavon and Ruby (aka The Worst) were neck and neck in the polls going into the election and Lavon was starting to freak out a little bit, especially when the chicken that always predicts the elections sided with Ruby (yes, you read that right and yes, it was funny). But Lemon was on the case and after she and Annabeth (aka The Best) gave Lavon a hilarious, aggressive pep talk (did you know Annabeth takes Mixed Martial Arts?), Lavon was ready to do his thing and win the election.

Of course Lemon Breeland likes to cover her bases and the campaign manager began recruiting people to lock up votes for Lavon. When Tom discovered a trailer on the edge of town, Lemon attempted to send Annabeth to talk to the person, but she’d seen enough horror movies to know why that was a terrible idea. So Lemon asked Wade to go instead in the typical (awesome) Lemon way of insulting him and then ordering him to do it. Zoe wanted to help too and Lemon told her to recruit her patients so that would be two votes. Zoe wasn’t amused, but Lemon keenly noticed that Zoe was wearing Wade’s shirt. The two acted like deer in the headlights for a moment, Zoe made up an excuse about Wade putting his laundry in with hers and Wade unconvincingly tried to tell Lemon that he hated Zoe. Lemon didn’t have time for their nonsense so their secret remained safe.

So Wade headed out to see who the trailer belonged to and it turned out to be his ex-wife Tansy. But there was a catch. Her trailer wasn’t technically in Bluebell; it was six feet over the town line. Wade didn’t see the problem, but Tansy remained firm and basically told Wade to go away. He wasn’t about to be deterred and called George for help. Lemon had given George his own task, convincing Presley to vote, but he’d already talked to her so he headed out to help Wade. But when Wade explained that he just wanted him to move Tansy’s trailer over, his ex made it clear she was not on board with that.

George tried to talk to her and Tansy was upset because she Blue bell had too many bad memories and she didn’t want to go back. George pointed out that if everyone who got mad at Wade left town, it would be a ghost town (ha!). Tansy agreed to give George a haircut while they talked some more. But Wade got bored waiting and decided to move the trailer himself with George and Tansy inside, which caused Tansy to shave away a big chunk out of the side of George’s hair (hilarious). Needless to say, they were both pretty mad at Wade, but he didn’t seem to mind because he’d done his part.

While Lemon was doing her campaign manager thing, Brick and Magnolia were having some issues. Magnolia wanted to learn to drive, but Brick was in a terrible mood. Zoe observed Brick’s bad behavior and told Wade that she thought there was something physically wrong with him, but Wade insisted that he was just crabby because he wasn’t getting laid. Zoe scoffed at that and once she agreed to teach Magnolia to drive, Brick let her examine him. She mentioned that she was worried because of his advanced…height, she told him once he gave her a look that clearly warned her not to say ‘age.’ As they talked about Emily, Brick’s stats started going all over the place and he admitted to Zoe that she’d been blowing him off and the long distance thing was hard. Zoe convinced him to go see her, but first he had to cast his absentee ballot. He signed it before the deadline and gave it to Zoe, but Magnolia wanted another driving lesson before she turned it in.

Meanwhile, Lemon and Annabeth both noticed that Lavon and Ruby were flirting and eyeing each other (ugh) and Lemon finally told Annabeth that she and Lavon had been in love and that she was pretty sure that she still was in love with him. Annabeth encouraged Lemon to go talk to Lavon before it was too late. Lemon went to find him, but Lavon had just finished a similar conversation with Wade about Ruby and how he didn’t want her to leave town if she lost the election. So Lavon blew off poor Lemon to go find Ruby and Jaime King made the saddest face ever.

The election was a tie so it was up to the chicken to decide (see what I mean about comedy? This show is the rightful heir to “Gilmore Girls,” no matter what that show that shall not be named tries to say). As the town gathered to watch the chicken choose a picture of a candidate, George embarrassed Tansy by blaming her for his terrible haircut and hurting her chances of a cosmetology career in Bluebell. Then he put his foot in his mouth once more when Presley told him that she voted for Ruby and George reminded her that he’d told her to vote for Lavon. Presley wasn’t having that and ended things between them (I was hoping she’d stick around longer).

After another tense driving lesson with Magnolia, who admitted that there was a boy who she wanted to text her, Zoe showed up at the chicken mess and turned in Brick’s absentee ballot, which made Lavon the winner. But he was nowhere to be found until Tansy’s trailer was moved out of the way and everyone saw Lavon and Ruby making out behind it (I am not here for this nonsense). Lemon’s sad face was back and poor Annabeth didn’t know what to do for her friend as everyone congratulated Lavon on his win.

Brick placed a video call to Zoe from North Carolina and told her things were great with Emily. It turned out that she’d been about to hop on a plane for Alabama to see him. But when Brick started lecturing Zoe again, she pretended the call was breaking up and closed the computer. Later, Zoe and Wade were in bed and talking about what goes into finding the right person. These two are seriously all kinds of adorable as they fall into a relationship without even realizing they’re doing it. George went to apologize to Tansy and she accepted and invited him in to fix his hair. There was definitely a little spark there (Hmm…).

So there you have it; another fantastic week in Bluebell. Town wide events need to become the norm on the show because the guest cast members are always fun to watch and the show as a whole is better when there’s one storyline being told from multiple angles. And showing Wade and Zoe being cute isn’t hurting anyone either. Until next week…

About the author

Mandy Treccia

Mandy Treccia has served as TVSource Magazine’s Executive Editor since 2016, formerly as Editorial Director from 2012-2016. She is an avid TV watcher and card carrying fan girl prone to sudden bursts of emotion, ranging from extreme excitement to blind rage during her favorite shows and has on more than once occasion considered having a paper bag on hand to get her through some tough TV moments. Her taste in TV tends to rival that of a thirteen-year-old girl, but she’s okay with that. Follow her on Twitter at @SourceMandy.